On Wednesday, 4 February 2026, the Bremen Central Library invites you to a reading by author Raphaëlle Red. She will present her novel Adikou.
Raphaëlle Red was born in Paris in 1997, grew up in Germany and currently lives in Berlin. She first studied social sciences, then literature, and completed a Master’s degree in Literary Writing at Université Paris VIII in 2020. She is currently conducting research at the Free University of Berlin on contemporary literature of the African diaspora. Her texts have been published in French, English and German.
About the novel: Adikou’s origins are blurred, the traces of her family history erased; she does not even know how to pronounce her own name correctly. Then, during an oppressively hot summer, she can no longer bear living in Paris. Adikou flies to Lomé, Togo, her father’s place of origin, a man she does not know. What she is searching for is unclear to her; the questions are asked by others – at passport control, in Lomé snack bars, in her accommodations, constantly: Who is your father, are you white or Black or both, how does it feel to travel alone as a woman, do you speak Ewe, are you a journalist, what are you looking for here? From Togo, Adikou travels along the West African coast to the United States. She creates an inheritance of snakeskins, skylines and stifling nights, explores history and stories, past and present – until she can finally listen to the words of her vanished father.
Wednesday, 4 February 2026, 6:30 p.m., free admission
Bremen Central Library, Am Wall 201, 28195 Bremen, Wall Hall (external entrance via Am Wall)